


marked wrists

by Rei_Rei (anti60ne)



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Fluff and Angst, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-09
Updated: 2013-09-09
Packaged: 2017-12-26 02:28:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 948
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/960509
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anti60ne/pseuds/Rei_Rei
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>in which Sehun has a secret told by his marked wrists, and Luhan persists in a childhood belief about angels.</p>
            </blockquote>





	marked wrists

**Author's Note:**

> [Russian translation](http://ficbook.net/readfic/2096535) by the lovely [Viktoriya](https://twitter.com/FuckingUndead)

**genre:** borderline angst, slight fluff  
 **pairing:** Luhan/Sehun  
 **rating:** G  
 **word count:** 911  
 **summary:** in which Sehun has a secret told by his marked wrists, and Luhan persists in a childhood belief about angels.  
 _warning:_ implications of self-harm.

  


There was something about Sehun that seemed to nudge people away in apprehension rather than dislike or disapproval. It was the way he slunk away silently after dinner, the way he kept to himself while shifting his weight between two feet awkwardly at group settings, the way he stared into space with lifeless eyes. People just thought he was quiet, withdrawn, introverted, and they left him alone.

Except Luhan.

Luhan liked taking care of people, an innate propensity that propelled him to sling his arm around his members, give out random hugs, ruffle the hair atop those much taller than him. Including Sehun.

If anything, Luhan felt that Sehun needed more taking care of than anyone else, for reasons he couldn't explain himself. Despite himself, Sehun couldn't resist Luhan's gentleness, not with those pretty eyes folded into a disarming smile, though his doubts about just how much Luhan cared grew by the day. Sehun had let Luhan in, but he constantly wanted out. Each moment that Luhan stayed seemed to pass more quickly than the one before, and Sehun felt like he was watching time disappear like a train he was too late to catch.

It was sometime in the dead of the night that Luhan woke with a start. A bad dream, he vaguely recalled, brows scrunching in half-consciousness. He lay in bed with wide open eyes, unable to go back to sleep. The room was startlingly quiet save for occasional soft snores resonating from Kyungsoo. His eyes drifted around and landed on Sehun's bed and the mould underneath a blanket.

Luhan crawled out of his bed and into Sehun's, just like he had a few times before, whenever he had trouble sleeping.

It was ironic how Luhan took care of Sehun in daylight, and Sehun took care of him on nights when sleep chose to evade him.

Sehun groaned in his dream when Luhan scooted him over, making space for himself. Instead of waking, Sehun unconsciously shifted about and reclaimed a comfortable position, then nuzzled against Luhan, dropping an arm across his chest. Luhan smiled, shifting so that Sehun fit in the crook of his body perfectly. Still wide awake, Luhan played with Sehun's hand, twirling slender fingers in an unnamed dance. He traced the veins peeking over the pale skin, intrigued by the shade of bluish-green, almost ghostly under the moonlight. On a whim, Luhan turned the hand over and ran his fingertips along the trails on the palm. His fingers travelled downward until they reached where the lines ended and Luhan felt his heart stop.

He blinked several times, as if the dark was playing reverse tricks on his eyes. Luhan had never noticed them before. Pieces of the puzzle came together rapidly. The thick layers of bracelets that Sehun wore at all times. No one thought much of it other than it being Sehun's personal habit, but no one knew how adamant he was about keeping them on in the dressing room, to the frustrated dismay of coordi nunas.

The scars were unmistakable, overlapping crimson lines zooming into his focus, unyielding and intending to stay. His fingertips brushed over the marks, eliciting a hiss from the figure beside him.

Sehun sat up in a jolt. His eyes skittered frantically from his own wrist to Luhan, bewildered and shrinking in conspicuous guilt. He held his wrist toward his chest.

"Hyung, I--"

"You must be an angel."

The softness of Luhan's voice was a stark contrast to its abruptness. Sehun was stumped. He shook his head incredulously, thinking he must have been hearing things in his grogginess.

"What?"

"You must be an angel, I said."

"What the hell are you talking about."

Luhan reached for Sehun's wrist and pulled it toward him, examining it. White lines emerged this time, aged and less apparent. The striated pattern that took up the inside of the wrist was strikingly familiar to Luhan. He studied them in nostalgia.

"My mom said that people with marked wrists are angels."

Sehun snorted. He was beginning to think Luhan was high on something to be sprouting such nonsense.

"Hyung, I'm not a--"

"My mom said that angels harm themselves because their heart is too gentle and the pain in this world is too much for them to bear." Luhan murmured as he traced the white lines cautiously, making sure to avoid the protruding ones ranging in pink, red, and maroon. "She told me that this is what they do before they can return home to heaven."

Sehun was silent. He gazed at Luhan's face, a rueful smile tucked away at the corner of his lips, eyes dry but radiating tenderness that eroded Sehun's wall.

"Well..." Sehun swallowed a rebuttal. "That's very kind of her to say that," he managed eventually.

"Yeah," Luhan looked up, eyes twinkling with a sincere smile playing on his mouth. "Maybe you'll get to meet her after you return home."

Sehun stared at him, a large lump hedged in the back of his throat. He felt something wet pooling in the corner of his eyes. He reached out and pulled Luhan into an embrace so tight he would not be able to distinguish between their heartbeats if not for his own roaring in his ears.

"Yeah, I hope I do."

He lied as he vowed silently that he would never mark himself again. He didn't want to be an angel, not when he could stay in this world with Luhan.  



End file.
